Covid-19 outbreak has caused a reaction where rakyat was panicking stock up their food pantry and buying face mask and hand sanitizer in a huge quantity. However, most people are frustrated over the shortage of the hot commodity – face mask and hand sanitizer where many pharmacies don’t have the supply. In this pandemic situation, some people take the advantage to resell face mask and hand sanitizer in higher price.
Matt and Noah Colvin cleared all the stores in Tenn and Kentucky and bought 17,700 hand sanitizer
A media reported two men attempted to take advantage of the hot commodity demand. The New York Times said both, Matt and Noah Colvin visited several stores in Chattanooga, Tenn and Kentucky and bought almost all hand sanitizers (17,700 bottles of hand sanitizer) in order to turn a profit.
Their attempt to take advantage of the demand led them to buy pile of hand sanitizer and a ton of respirator masks too. They sold roughly 300 bottles at prices ranging between $8 to $70 each to make a quick buck.
However, Amazon denied their idea to make a quick buck
Unfortunately, they couldn’t sell off all the supply as Amazon quickly cracked down on exploiting a health crisis – known as price gouging. With so many online sellers trying to gain profit from the covid-19 situation, Amazon released a statement explaining:
“Price gouging is a clear violation of our policies, unethical, and in some areas, illegal. In addition to terminating these third party accounts, we welcome the opportunity to work directly with states attorneys general to prosecute bad actors.”
Amazon pulled his items and thousands of other listings for sanitizer, wipes and face masks, suspending some of the sellers and warning others that, if they sold the items at higher values, they’d lose their accounts.
There’s stricter measures for sales of masks or hand sanitizer
After Amazon released a stricter rule for the selling of both face masks and hand sanitizer, they both attempted to list the products on eBay. However, they were banned too following stricter measures for sales of both items. He is now stuck with 17,700 bottles of hand sanitizer as others struggle to find them in stores.
“I thought I could put my family in a really good place financially”
Matt told The New York Times that he thought he could make profit over this situation. With many people willing to spend buck on a single bottle of hand sanitizer, he knew he could gain profit. Unfortunately, he’s left with thousands of hand sanitizer at his home.
Many called them as selfish
Some medical professionals and the general public called their actions “selfish”. This is something that one shouldn’t do as many folks who are in need of those products have been met with empty shelves at stores. Even the first line of defense at the hospitals are forced to ration. Learn from their lesson, both are assured that they would find a way to donate the demand goods instead.
Malaysians please be a responsible citizen
Due to the prolong covid-19 in our country, everyone should be a responsible citizen and buyer too. Avoid panic buying and only buy stuffs enough for your family. There are a few people trying to gain profit by purchasing face masks and hand sanitizer in a bulk and resell at higher price (some even sell at RM140 per box) which is ridiculous. Stay safe everyone and avoid going out.
Discussion about this post